In medical diagnostics, different imaging methods are used to be able to detect anomalies in the body of a patient. Examples of such methods are x-ray diagnostics, which also includes computed tomography (CT), positron emission tomography (PET), magnetic resonance tomography (MRT), etc. An earlier practice for visual analysis of x-ray pictures was to hang the x-ray images printed on transparencies on a light wall. Nowadays, the light wall is replaced by a computer whose screen is used to display the data records obtained using the imaging method. A doctor's work is also assisted by a suitable software program which can be used to edit and evaluate the image data records electronically.
When analyzing and evaluating the examination images, it is of great importance that the doctor keeps his attention on particular images or areas of the images. In this context, the software programs for displaying and editing the examination images have functions, subsequently called work steps (“tasks”), whose execution requires particular graphical and data-related requirements to be met, so that the image data are visually displayed in a defined arrangement, in this case referred to as a layout. These requirements may be different for the different work steps, so that a change in the layout is unavoidable as soon as the next work step is executed.